A family of three who got stuck on a raging waterfall were rescued after floating an SOS message in a bottle down a river.

Curtis Whitson, his girlfriend, and his 13-year-old son were on a backpacking trip in central California in June.

Their plan was to follow the Arroyo Seco river through a canyon until they reached the waterfall.

At the waterfall, they would shimmy down a rope and carry on their journey to a campsite.

But on day three of the hike the family found themselves stranded in a narrow part of canyon where the walls were 40ft (15m) high on either side.

The rope Mr Whitson expected to be there wasn’t, meaning they couldn’t climb down or out. To make matters worse, the waterfall was flowing too fast for them to enter.

“My heart sank when I realised the volume of water was just too dangerous to make rappelling down possible,” Mr Whitson told CNN.

With no phone signal or “a single soul” in sight, Mr Whitson concocted a plan. He wrote a note on a bar order slip that his girlfriend, Krystal Ramirez, 34, had brought to keep game scores: “We are stuck here at the waterfall. Get help please,” the note read.

Mr Whitson put the note in a green water bottle and carved “help” into the side. Then he threw the bottle into the water. “With one lucky toss, it went right over the waterfall,” he told CNN.

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